ACADEMIA Letters

The Transaqua Project: Narrative and Constructivist

Analysis
Joseph Mimbale, Université de Kinshasa

This article sets out to explain why the narrative of the Transaqua project should be understood
prior to any analysis and why it is appropriate to think this initiative in terms of the construc-
tivist approach to international relations. For several decades, the issue of the rescue of Lake
Chad by the waters of the Congo has dominated both the African regional universe and the
international chronicle. It is also the backdrop for several scientific publications covering var-
ious fields. In International Relations, the issue has been explored more under the anchor of
classical theoretical approaches. Very little research has attempted to address the initiative
according to the analytical logics of critical theoretical approaches such as constructivism –
which is powerful for its multi-causal explanation of social phenomena, its emphasis on so-
cial context, intersubjective arrangements, the social construction of national interest and the
constitutive nature of initiatives and actors.
When we try to comb through the existing literature on the issue of mega water transfer
projects such as Transaqua, we cannot help but notice that much of the literature on the politics
of large-scale water infrastructure is centred on classical theoretical schemes enshrining the
centrality of the state, the West, urban development and even urban modernism [1]–[6]. Too
often, case studies have focused on river bodies, transboundary basins, shared basins, shared
water resources…in developing countries [7]. These approaches focus on issues of territo-
rialisation of governmental power, legitimisation of state power, nationalisation, sovereignty
and other forms of political competence [8]–[10].
With the inter-basin transfer to Lake Chad, social scientists have focused more on ’hy-
dropolitical’ analysis, such as Magrin’s [11] political-ecological research on Lake Chad. Of
course, Magrin sees the inter-basin transfer of water to restore the mythical disappearance of
the lake as being motivated by various political interests. In contrast, from a hydro-security

Academia Letters, September 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Joseph Mimbale, [email protected]

Citation: Mimbale, J. (2021). The Transaqua Project: Narrative and Constructivist Analysis. Academia Letters,
Article 3500. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3500.

1
and regional integration perspective, Ifabiyi [12] believes that an inter-basin water transfer to
Lake Chad would offer potential benefits in addressing the terrorist threat in the region, and
would consequently enhance regional cooperation and development of landlocked Central
African countries. Both papers mentioned the two main inter-basin water transfer schemes
proposed to replenish Lake Chad (Oubangui and Transaqua), although neither offered full
multi-causal explanations of either project.
However, a constructivist analysis of water transfer mega-projects has the advantage of
offering a perspective on the nature of actors (state, group, communities, individuals) and
their relationships to wider structural environments. Its philosophy is one of mutual consti-
tution in which no unit of analysis – actor/structure – is reduced to the other. The interest
of actors emerges ’from’ and is endogenous ’to’ the interaction with the structure at the first
level and other actors at the second level, with neither having analytical primacy over the other
[13]. This being said, in order to consider the Transaqua Project and the future of the basins
concerned, it is important to take into account 5 levels of analysis:

• Transaqua’s narrative framework: which helps to understand Transaqua’s discur-

sive logics. The narrative is, in fact, centred on the level of the actantial structure
[14] – which is an essential discursive framework from which the narrative structure
is constructed, and around which it is possible to derive the semantic-logical relations
concerning “doing” – a kind of logic of action that must be deciphered in order to
better apprehend the spirit or dimension of the discursive scope. From this perspec-
tive, the narrative of the Transaqua project is structure around three (3) fundamental
aspects: a major transport infrastructure, the production of electrical energy and agro-
industrial development. Indeed, in order to eradicate the poverty afflicting most of the
African population, Transaqua opts for the large-scale development of communication
infrastructures. An infrastructure development that should lead to the improvement of
services and the production of sufficient quality and quantity of electrical energy for in-
dustry and households…which will enable the riparian states to significantly improve
the standard of living of their populations. Since the narrative is a component of the
internal circuit of the discourse that organises the “it” from the point of view of ac-
tions, that is, everything that concerns the description of facts, which we should call
“the pragmatics of actions”, it will allow us not only to describe the Transaqua project,
but also, and above all, to elucidate the semantic-logical relations in the organisation of
the actions (actancial schema) around the Transaqua initiative.

• The contextualisation of social phenomena: without the contextualisation of the Transaqua

initiative, we will not be able to understand the position or the engagement of the dif-

Academia Letters, September 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Joseph Mimbale, [email protected]

Citation: Mimbale, J. (2021). The Transaqua Project: Narrative and Constructivist Analysis. Academia Letters,
Article 3500. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3500.

2
 ferent actors.

• Intersubjective arrangements: because reality is not given once and for all; it is in-
tersubjective, i.e. it depends on the meaning given to it by the actors. Thus, more than
power relations, it is perceptions that guide the behaviour of states. This is why the
overlapping dynamics of events around Transaqua cannot be understood without first
taking into account the intersubjective nature of discourses, relationships, images and
perceptions. Hence the interest in exploring this analytical grid in order to fully under-
stand the way in which the contexts in which Lake Chad and the waters of the Congo
are situated are developing, their consequences on the attitude of the actors, and on the
possibility of concretising the Transaqua initiative.

• The social construction of the national interest: indeed, Transaqua appears today as
a project that looks like an “international conspiracy”. Conspiracy because the project
is at a very advanced stage of discussions between several states, business circles and
international experts, discussions in which the Congolese population and state have not
been sufficiently involved. Transaqua’s narrative, which we have noted in the first point,
tells of the benefits that the riparian states would gain from the project. Gains in terms
of interests and the power to develop. However, state interests cannot be simply deduced
from the strategic distribution of economic or even material power [15]. There is also
a social power component that needs to be considered in the approval of large-scale
initiatives.

• The constitutive nature of initiatives and actors: this will allow us to analyse the
set of actors, their role…These actors can be States, epistemic communities, social
movements, NGO networks, or even societies themselves.

The intersubjective perception of the Transaqua initiative by the actors has contributed
greatly to bringing them together through meetings, summits, forums and high-level confer-
ences. It should be remembered that we started from a proposal in the 1980s that did not
evolve too much – due to environmental considerations, regional geopolitics, its unilateral-
ism and, above all, its cost, which was out of the reach of the actors and which, presumably,
aroused considerable interest at the time without obtaining the favourable opinion of the States
of two basins – to a much more constructive proposal which, due to the support of a number
of actors, offers greater possibilities for its materialisation. The approval of the Transaqua
inter-basin water transfer project at the International Conference for the Safeguarding of Lake
Chad – held in Abuja from 26 to 28 February 2018 – was an important step in this process.
Of course, the Transaqua project has had many uncertain moments. Uncertainties about the

Academia Letters, September 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Joseph Mimbale, [email protected]

Citation: Mimbale, J. (2021). The Transaqua Project: Narrative and Constructivist Analysis. Academia Letters,
Article 3500. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3500.

3
actors, about funding and about geopolitical considerations. However, intersubjectivity en-
sures that the actors co-construct and rearrange their positions and interests. And from a
constructivist point of view, the fact that the LCBC states accepted the DRC’s demands by
ordering a first feasibility study of the Transaqua initiative is proof of co-constitution, so-
cial co-construction and, above all, a consideration of regional socio-political susceptibilities.
Even if for sovereignist reasons and taking into account the very complex political context in
the DRC, it should be stressed that anything can happen depending on contexts, intersubjective
arrangements, interests, actors and/or structures.
We can therefore argue, finally, that the ideas surrounding the Inter-basin Water Transfer
venture (in particular the Transaqua project) represent a window of opportunity for several
actors to pursue their broader socio-economic and political agendas in the Lake Chad and
Congo basins. Perhaps this is why they are motivated to promote Transaqua in line with
economic and socio-political agendas. It should also be noted that some potentially influential
actors, such as UNESCO, the World Bank and CICOS, which are expected to play a key role
in the Inter-basin Water Transfer processes in the near future, have not finalised their position
on the issue. This leads us to understand that, indeed, norms and institutions are not born in a
vacuum. The question is not only the presupposition that if reality is a social construct…it is
easily changed if the actors want to. Thus, norms, proposals or initiatives must constantly be
formulated, defended and legitimised by the actors. And it is up to them to justify such and
such initiatives, proposals or actions – to discuss them, to reconcile divergent points of view
and to defend them in the public space. Hence the interest of the approach of a co-construction
of initiatives and actors in this Transaqua process.

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Academia Letters, September 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Joseph Mimbale, [email protected]

Citation: Mimbale, J. (2021). The Transaqua Project: Narrative and Constructivist Analysis. Academia Letters,
Article 3500. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3500.

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Academia Letters, September 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Joseph Mimbale, [email protected]

Citation: Mimbale, J. (2021). The Transaqua Project: Narrative and Constructivist Analysis. Academia Letters,
Article 3500. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3500.